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BlizzCon 2013: The Future of Hearthstone Revealed

A look at what is in store for the future of Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft.

Even though Hearthstone is still in the beta
stages, we, the fans, can't help but wonder what is in store for the
future of this epic Blizzard game. At the Hearthstone: Fireside Chat panel
at BlizzCon 2013 we got a small glimpse of just that, the future. Even
with such a small team, Blizzard has big plans for the game and they are
nothing short of crazily exciting. The future for Hearthstone is bright
indeed. Check out the changes and additions announced by Ben Brode and
Eric Dodds below:

Card Changes

With a complete wipe of the beta and a brand
new patch, you may think that the changes to your cards are pretty much
over. This is simply not true. The Hearthstone team is dedicated to keep
tweaking the cards until they are totally perfect. This means in the
future we will see plenty of card changes to keep the game interesting and
fun. Some examples of the changes to come follow:

Mind Control - Will now cost 10 mana instead of 8.

Starving Buzzard Now is 2/1 down from 2/2.

Ranked Play Revised

Hearthstone Ranked play is pretty good, but
the Hearthstone team doesn't think it is good enough. So, ranked play in
the future will be totally and completely revised. Not only will ranked
play become more engaging, but there will be more incentive to take part
it in.

Changes to ranked play include; twenty-five
new ranks with each rank named after a minion from Hearthstone. Each game
you win in ranked mode will earn you a star, while every game lost you
will lose a star. This means you can both go up and down ranks. This
offers a more hardcore and challenging experience.

Ranked play will now also be divided into
seasons. Each ranked season will last a month and be reset at the end of
that month. You will also be able to view how you are ranked against other
players in your region. Wondering what the point of playing in each season
is if your rank will reset? Players will be given exclusive card backs for
each season they participate in, a pretty cool reward if you ask me.

Golden Heroes

Heroes will become a little more interesting
in Hearthstone's future. Like Golden Cards, Heroes will be able to be
upgraded to Golden Heroes. This will give them a new Golden Hero power,
plus an epic animation.

Hearthstone Expansions

Wondering if your favorite card game will be
releasing expansions? The Hearthstone Panel revealed a definite yes.
Hearthstone players can expect to see new cards and new features in each
expansion with a focus on pleasing all of the different types of players.
Quite an order to fill right?

To please all it's players, expansions will
come in the form of Adventures. These Adventures are a focused single
player experience against a boss or bosses. There will be several cards
that can be earned associated with each adventure. The idea behind this is
to put new cards into the environment quickly without become overwhelming,
something that can easily happen when a ton of content is pushed out at
once.

Small Changes

Some smaller, but no less important, changes
and additions coming to Hearthstone are:

Three new keys and bigger rewards in the arena.

Reconnection after getting disconnected.

New exciting effects for minions.

As you can see, if you love Hearthstone now,
there is plenty to look forward to in the future. What future plan for
Hearthstone are you most looking forward to? Is there anything that wasn't
mentioned you would like to see happen in the game? Share your thoughts
with us in the comment section below!